Friday Night Live: American Opera with Crown Lands at the Rivoli
On Friday night in Toronto a band from NYC rolled in and set up and played their only Canadian date on what has been an eventful tour so far.
American Opera, fronted by John Bee, has had van breakdowns along the way, but haven’t missed a date yet – and we’re sure glad that they didn’t miss this one. We had a chance to hangout with John before the show for a chat and a song (look just a little further down in the post for the video) and then we saw him hit the stage to entertain the assembled audience in the back room.
While we were at the venue to see American Opera we saw Friday’s opener, Crown Lands, go through their sound check, and then we caught their set when they opened the show. The Oshawa duo rocked hard, swung a lot of hair around, and looked like they had a whole lot of fun. They also sound great, and if you’re into some good, loud, guitar and drum rock and roll you should be looking into their new album and its pre-sale right now!
These boys were a whole lot of fun, and earned themselves every bit of applause and the shout out they got from American Opera after they were done. Check more of Trish’s pics a little further down!
As we talked with John about the American Opera tour we found out that he has played the Rivoli stage before, but Friday was the first time he’d done it with the backing of the bass and drums in the band. And he likes that. He told us that the energy gets a great boost when the 3 musicians take the stage together, and while we haven’t seen the solo show, we can tell you that the band sounds great together.
John also apologized to the crowd for a little bit of a blown out voice – but here’s the thing, he sounded good. No issues from where we were sitting. And the way people were clapping and singing along, we don’t think anyone else had any problems with John’s voice either!
American Opera put on a fun, upbeat, and at times funny show with great tracks, banter, and that energy we were told would be there. the Rivoli stage was a great place to see them, and the crowd that was in the room for the show all looked to be happy with the fact that they were there to see it all go down.
Note: 3 ladies in the crowd seemed incredibly happy. We saw them at the merch table after the set and they had come to the Toronto show after seeing American Opera play Warped Tour in years past. They were pretty excited – and happy to grab 3 t-shirts, a CD, sunglasses, and some free stickers!
Tracks like Spoons and Knives, Sand and Seed, and Bright Lights and Amplifiers had us locked into the music. We liked it so much we bought a copy of the CD and have it playing on repeat in the car.
This may have been the only Canadian stop on the current tour, but we’re hoping it won’t be long before John is back in Toronto with more American Opera shows in the very near future.
Check out more dates, the socials (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube), Trish’s pictures and our green room video now!
Photos of American Opera at the Rivoli, July 29, 2016
Photos of Crown Lands at the Rivoli, July 29, 2016
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